Last week, I was editing a document for a client and came across the following phrase: a deep seeded confidence I hadn’t seen this usage before, but I thought it’d make a good blog post topic. The phrase should actually be “a deep seated confidence” despite “deep seeded” making sense, at least metaphorically. In this case,… Continue reading Difference between deep seeded and deep seated
Category: Grammar
How to write numbers for the web: numerals not words
Last week, while editing several dozen pages for a client, I replaced all spelled out numbers with numerals (4 instead of four, for example). I was reminded of their style guide (One downside to freelancing is trying to remember everyone’s style guides), so I changed them back. I thought the reason why I changed it in… Continue reading How to write numbers for the web: numerals not words
7 examples of sexist language to avoid in your writing
Sexist stereotyping, despite efforts spanning decades to change it, still exists, and it’s pervasive in how we communicate. Sexist stereotyping—well, stereotyping in general—is a poor way to communicate because it relies on assumptions and generalizations that often don’t apply to the situation at hand. Here are 7 ways to avoid sexism in your own writing, but this… Continue reading 7 examples of sexist language to avoid in your writing
5 tricky areas of subject–verb agreement
One of the most popular edits I have to make is subject–verb agreement. When writing, you must ensure that the subject of the sentence agrees with the verb in the sentence regarding numbering. “My sister loves hot peppers”, not “My sister love hot peppers” “They are quiet tonight”, not “They is quiet tonight” When you’re using… Continue reading 5 tricky areas of subject–verb agreement
How to fix faulty parallelism
One of the most common grammatical errors I see on the web is faulty parallelism. I assume most writers aren’t even aware of the error. Faulty parallelism exists when two potentially related actions differ in structure. Let me illustrate.
5 popular phrases everyone is getting wrong
One confusing aspect of the English language is letters that sometimes sound alike (like D and T, for example). This can lead to misunderstanding what someone says to you. One of the ways where this is most prevalent is in popular phrases that are often misheard, then subsequently repeated with their erroneous pronunciations. Here are… Continue reading 5 popular phrases everyone is getting wrong
Difference between everyday and every day
While editing a client document last week, I came across the term “everyday”. It stuck out to me because it was being used incorrectly. Here is an example of “everyday” being used wrong: I go to the store everyday. What should be used instead is “every day”. So what’s the difference between “every day” and… Continue reading Difference between everyday and every day
You don’t always need a comma when using “and”
While recently editing a research proposal I was reminded of a comma error I frequently find myself correcting: always preceding “and” with a comma. Here was the example sentence:
The 5 writing errors I edit most often
Recently, I was asked to edit a master’s thesis, something I’ve done a few times over the last couple of years. While reviewing my roughly 1,000 edits in the thesis, I noticed that the most frequent errors fell under 5 categories, and that these 5 categories of edits often appear in other client documents. I thought I’d share them with… Continue reading The 5 writing errors I edit most often
Difference between alternate and alternative
While editing a document for a client last week, I noticed their use of “alternate”, and it prompted me to write this post. Technically, the two words don’t mean the same thing, but that’s been changing recently.